The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that refers to a network computing environment in which physical things such as devices, objects, and other things, etc., are equipped with unique identifiers, network connectivity, and other embedded technologies, which allows such devices, objects, and things to sense, communicate, interact, and send/receive data over one or more communications networks (e.g., Internet, etc.) without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. For an IoT application, a “thing” may include any object that can be assigned an IP address and have the capability to transfer data over a communications network. IoT technology is considered to be a key enabler for many emerging and future “smart” applications and, consequently, there is expected to be an exponential increase in the number of network connected devices, objects, and autonomous things, which are connected over a communications network such as the Internet. For example, a “smart” IoT application can be implemented using a wireless sensor network (WSN) comprising a network of wireless sensor nodes that cooperatively sense and control a given application environment using machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. As a result of the expected exponential increase in the number of network connected devices for smart IoT applications, network security will become an increasingly problematic issue, especially for RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) networks and wireless networks which are being widely implemented. Indeed, recent attacks (e.g., Stuxnet, BlackEnergy, etc.) have shown that IoT systems cannot be adequately protected with software alone, as security software can be readily bypassed by clever attackers, who can then remotely control physical systems.